(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of processing a silver halide color photographic material, and more particularly to a method of processing a silver halide color photographic material in which the stability of a color developer is improved so that the increased fogging problem in continuous processing is lessened and the processing time is shortened.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Reflecting the demand for a shorter customer waiting period and reduced laboratory work, it has been desirable to shorten the processing time of color photographic materials in recent years. As ways of shortening the time of each processing step, it was a routine practice to raise the temperature or increase the replenishing amount. Numerous other approaches have also been proposed, including the use of intensified agitation and the addition of various accelerators or promotors.
Of these, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 95345/1983, 23242/1984, 19140/1985 and 70552/1986 disclose a method of processing a color photographic material which contains an emulsion of silver chloride with a view towards speeding up color development and/or reducing the replenishing amount. When a photographic material utilizing an emulsion of such a high chlorine content is processed, hydroxylamine, which has conventionally been used as a preservative for color developers, cannot be used because it induces silver development (black and white development) and significantly lowers the dye density as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 19140/1985. For this reason, a dihydroxybenzenecarboxylic acid was used in lieu of hydroxylamine in the invention of the patent application. This approach, however, was still unable to sufficiently stabilize a color developer.
Various preservatives and chelating agents have been investigated for many years with a view towards improving the stability of color developers. As exemplary preservatives may be mentioned the aromatic polyhydroxy compounds described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 49828/1977, 160142/1984 and 47038/1981 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,544; the hydroxycarbonyl compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,503 and British Pat. No. 1,306,176; the .alpha.-aminocarbonyl compounds described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 143020/1977 and 89425/1978; the alkanolamines described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 3532/1979; and the metal salts described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 44148/1982 and 53749/1982. On the other hand, illustrative examples of such chelating agents include the aminopolycarboxylic acids described in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 30496/1973 and 30232/1969; the organophosphonic acids described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 97347/1981, Japanese Patent Publication No. 39359/1981 and West German Pat. No. 2,227,639; phosphonocarboxylic acids described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 102726/1977, 42730/1978, 121127/1979, 126241/1980 and 65956/1980; and further, compounds described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 195845/1983 and 203440/1983 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 40900/1978.
Use of the above-described various preservatives and chelating agents was, however, unable to bring about sufficient effects for color developers which did not contain hydroxylamine.
Furthermore, color photographic materials which contain a chlorobromide emulsion having a high chlorine content tend to develop fogging upon color development as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 95345/1983 and 232342/1984. The techniques disclosed in these patent publications, however, failed to prevent fogging satisfactorily. Other methods used to prevent development fogging have been to add, in photographic materials or processing solutions, heterocyclic compounds such as 1-phenyl-5-mercptotetrazoles (see, for example, Belgium Pat. No. 671,406, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,295,976, 3,376,310, 3,615,616, 3,071,465, 3,420,664 and 2,403,927, and Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 37436/1975 and 95728/1983), benzotriazoles (see, for example, British Pat. Nos. 919,061 and 768,438, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,157,509 and 3,082,088, and German Pat. No. 617,712), benzimidazoles (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,137,578, 3,148,066 and 3,511,663, British Pat. Nos. 271,475, 1,344,548, 3,148,066 and 3,511,663, and German Pat. Nos. 708,424, 635,769 and 2,205,539), and imidazoles (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,106,467, 3,420,670, 1,763,990 and 2,271,229). None of these heterocyclic compounds, however, were able to achieve sufficient antifogging effects.